Evidence

Multiple mainstream Israeli outlets (The Times of Israel, The Jerusalem Post, Israel National News, JNS, Yeshiva World News) confirm that during Benjamin Netanyahu's corruption trial, his defense attorney Amit Hadad did make this exact claim while cross-examining former Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit — alleging that prosecutors pressured Mandelblit into opening the investigation into Netanyahu and misled him about evidence, including regarding the origins of Case 4000. However, Mandelblit himself pushed back on the stand. According to The Jerusalem Post and Yahoo News coverage of the same hearing, Mandelblit said he would be 'surprised' if prosecutors had hidden evidence and stated he has 'full trust in the prosecution.' He did separately acknowledge that some investigative steps (e.g., certain police actions) were taken without his explicit prior approval, but he rejected Hadad's characterization that he was deliberately misled or improperly pressured into opening the probe. No independent fact-checking organization (Reuters, AFP, Bellingcat, EUvsDisinfo) appears to have investigated this specific courtroom exchange, as it is a matter of ongoing litigation rather than a viral social-media claim.